Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Br.

• Title

  Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Br.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R.Br.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Ipomoea Pes-caprae Bejuco de playa Bay Hops Family Convolvulaceae Morning-glory Family Convolvulus Pes-caprae Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 159. 1753. Convolvulus maritimus Desvaux, in Lamarck, Encyclopédic Méthodique Botanique 3: 556. 1789. Ipomoea Pes-caprae Roth, Nova Plantarum Species 109. 1881. Of all the many kinds of Morning-glories, this prostrate, creeping vine is the most elongated known to us, sometimes attaining a length of 20 meters, or more, lying flat on sands of the seashore, always within the reach of salt-water spray, or spume, with its showy, purple flowers forming a conspicuous feature of maritime vegetation. It grows on nearly all sandy, tropical and warm-temperate coasts, sometimes covering large areas. In America the range extends from Georgia, Bermuda and Mexico, in the North, through the West Indies and continental Central and South America to Brazil and Ecuador, and it has wide distribution in the tropics of Asia, Africa and Australasia. In Porto Rico this vine is common on sandy beaches, and grows also on those of the small islands Mona, Vieques, and Cayo Icacos. Beach Morning-glory is another name for it; the English equivalent of the Spanish name is Beach-vine. An account of the genus Ipomoea may be found with our description of the yellow-flowered Ipomoea polyanthes. Ipomoea Pes-caprae (Latin, the foot of a nanny-goat) is a smooth and fleshy vine. The nearly orbicular, long-stalked leaves are from 6 to 10 centimeters broad, usually notched at the apex, and rounded or heart-shaped at the base. The flowers are solitary, or several together, on a stout stalk; the oval, or nearly round sepals are blunt, minutely tipped, about 10 millimeters long; the purple corolla is 4 or 5 centimeters long, with a broadly funnelform tube, its spreading, wavy-lobed limb from 5 to 8 centimeters broad. The globose-ovoid capsule is about 15 millimeters long, the hairy seeds 8 or 9 millimeters in diameter.